The present disclosure relates to handle designs for improved stability, comfort, and control. While the present disclosure is made in the context of handles for surgical instruments, such as arthroscopic, laparoscopic, endoscopic, minimally invasive instruments, or other instruments, among others, the principles embodied in the present disclosure may be applicable outside the fields of surgery or medical devices.
Most manually actuated instruments used in the areas of arthroscopic or laparoscopic surgery are supported, or grounded, by the thumb and one or more of the fingers of a user's hand. Typically, such instruments are supported by inserting the thumb through a loop on a rear handle, which may be a stationary handle, and inserting one or more fingers through a loop on a front handle, which may be a movable handle. These instruments are often actuated by opening or closing the opposing handles with the thumb and finger(s) of the working hand. Such an arrangement may make it difficult to keep a working tip, or end effector, of the instrument stabilized at a precise location relative to a patient's anatomy, because the fingers that must stabilize the end effector are the same ones that must move to actuate the end effector. It can be difficult or fatiguing for a user to adequately compensate for actuation movement in such an arrangement.
Many manually actuated arthroscopic or laparoscopic instruments are designed as a set of several instruments, all with a consistent handle design and a consistent orientation between the handle and the end effector for all instruments in the set. Some instrument sets vary the end effector orientation by including some up- or down-angle end effectors. However, users may find themselves routinely adopting uncomfortable or injurious postures in order to simultaneously position an end effector in a desired orientation relative to a patient's anatomy, and position the hand to actuate the end effector. Occupational exposure to exaggerated postures may result in long term effects to the user, and have the potential to limit the efficacy of the instruments used.
There is a need for instrument handles that isolate the functions of supporting the instrument and actuating the instrument. There is a need for a set of instrument handles, working shafts, or both, that provides different orientations between the user's hand and the end effector, so that a user may select from the set a handle and/or shaft that positions the end effector appropriately for a given application while permitting a comfortable, safe working posture.